History Of APCDA

STEPS TO ORGANIZE THE ASIA PACIFIC CAREER DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION

In December, 2009, when Soonhoon Ahn visited Dr. Huei-Ling Peng, Dr. Yao-Ting Sung, and Dr. Shelley Tien at the National Taiwan Normal University, they discussed the concept of creating an Asia Pacific Career Development Association and agreed that such an organization would fill an important need. In May, 2010 Dr. Julia Park and Mr. Ilkng Huh of Korea also agreed that this concept had value and a brainstorming meeting should be held in San Francisco in conjunction with the 2010 NCDA Conference.Twenty Four NCDA

At NCDA in San Antonio in 2011, another organizational meeting was held with fifteen people attending. Attendees responded to a survey, voted to adopt the name Asia Pacific Career Development Association, the website URL AsiaPacificCDA.org, and a 2-tier organization that has organizational members and individual members.We also discussed the country of incorporate and chose the USA for convenience. As a virtual association, there really is no central location.
  • Soonhoon Ahn, President
  • Satomi Chudasama, Treasurer and Membership Chair
  • Marilyn Maze, Secretary and Executive Director
  • Richard Knowdell, Professional Development Chair

This small band of organizers push forward with constant communication about the details. By July 2012, APCDA had incorporated, adopted a logo, and established a website and a bank account. It took another 22 months to receive our non-profit certification due to IRS. Dues from our first paid member, Jodilyn Kunomoto at the University of Hawaii, were received in September, 2012.  Also at NCDA in Atlanta, Eunmee Hwang, President of the Career Consultant Forum, agreed to host the inaugural APCDA in Seoul.

Our inaugural conference in Seoul on April 3-5, 2013 drew over 100 attendees representing Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, US, and Vietnam. We held another organizational meeting at NCDA in Boston in July selected the following Area Representatives:

And Committee Directors:
Our first newsletter was published in  August, 2013 with articles contributed by our new Area Representatives. Since then, our membership and conferences have continued to grow and we have added many new Area Representatives. Please click on Contact Us to see the names of the people currently serving on the APCDA Board.